Essays

Author names not noted above: Matthew Arnold, John Ruskin, Walter Bagehot, Thomas Henry Huxley, Edward Freeman, Robert Louis Stevenson, William Ellery Channing, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry David Thoreau, Abraham Lincoln, James Russell Lowell Originally published between 1909 and 1917 under the name "Harvard Classics," this stupendous 51-volume set-a collection of the greatest writings from literature, philosophy, history, and mythology-was assembled by American academic CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT (1834-1926), Harvard University's longest-serving president. Also known as "Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf," it represented Eliot's belief that a basic liberal education could be gleaned by reading from an anthology of works that could fit on five feet of bookshelf. Volume XXVIII features essays from 12 essential writers on both sides of the Atlantic, personal reflections and cultural criticisms that continue to impact literature today: . "Jonathan Swift" by William Thackeray . "The Idea of a University" by John Henry Newman . "The Study of Poetry" by Matthew Arnold . "Sesame and Lilies" by John Ruskin . "John Milton" by Walter Bagehot . "Science and Culture" by Thomas Henry Huxley . "Race and Language" by Edward Freeman . "Truth of Intercourse" and "Samuel Pepys" by Robert Louis Stevenson . "On the Elevation of the Laboring Classes" by William Ellery Channing . "The Poetic Principle" by Edgar Allan Poe . "Walking" by Henry David Thoreau . "Abraham Lincoln" and "Democracy" by James Russell Lowell